Frosted food cabinet



Sept. 26 1950 c. s. RAFFA FRosTED Foon CABINET 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 50, `194'? INVENTCR CHEES SIE/3F54.

Sept. 26, 195 c. s. RAFFA 2,523,593

FROSTED FOOD CABINET Filed June 30, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNE Patented Sept. P6, 1950 l Charles S. Raffa, ew York, N. Y.

Application June 30, 1947, Serial No. '158,189

2 Claims. (Cl. (i2-89.5)

The presentV` invention relates to improvements in refrigerated cabinets, particularly those of the so-called walk-in type commonly used for the `storage of perishable merchandise such as food products.

It has heretofore been the practice to use the walk-in refrigerators for storage purposes and to provide separate, individually refrigerated display cases wherein the merchandise would be visible to the customers. of such cases is necessarily small, since the shelves must be well spaced and arranged so as to afford a convenient view of the goods and since the width of the case is limited by the need for accessibility of all the goods to the salesman. The provision of separate cooling systemsis uneconomical, particularly in view of the fact that the case must be opened at frequent'intervals during sales as well as for the purpose of reloading ,the shelves with merchandise taken'from the storage cabinet.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerated cabinet for the storage of large quantities of merchandise and for the simultaneous display of a selected portion thereof, a common cooling system being utilized for this purpose.

Another object of the invention is to provide a refrigerated cabinet of the walk-in type having a special section adapted as a showcase, this section being accessible both from the outside and from within the storage cabinet.

- Additional objects and features will become apparent in the course of the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a part of a cabinet according to the invention.

Fig. 2 is a cross-section taken on line 2--2 of Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an illustration of a detail on a larger scale.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5 5 of Fig. 4.

Referring first to Figs. l, 2 and 3, the cabinet generally indicated at I comprises a storage chamber I I, accessible through the walk-in door I2, and a showcase I3 where merchandise stored on shelves I4 is displayed through the sliding glass doors I5. The doors I may be slightly inclined to afford better visibility, as seen in Fig. 3, and may comprisetwo or more transparent front panels I E to provide adequate heat insula- The storage capacity I 2 tion. The main storage or working chamber II is obscured from view of the customers by back doors I1 whichmay be slidable, in similarmanner as front doors I5, by mechanism presently to be described. The doors I1 may each comprise a simple panel II! of metal or other preferably opaque material, to provide a suitable background for the goods displayed on the shelves I4, and

should have no thermal insulation so as to lex-r pose the showcase I3 tothe temperature obtaining in chamber II.'v

The customer, standing in front of the glass doors -I 5,may observe the goods on displayfand the customer may be served from these doors. The doors I1 may be conveniently operated by a person standing on the iioor yI9 of the aisle adjoining the walk-in door I2, in order to reload the display shelves with merchandise. The y shelves 20 `are open toward the aisle for replenishment of merchandise and accessible from without through the hinged doors 2| for service to customers.

The sliding doors I5 and I1 are arranged in pairs, each pair comprising two doors located in different planes and displaceable in opposite directions. Adjacent pairs are separated by jamb members 22 to which are secured brackets 23 supporting the shelves I4 and 20. The members 22 also serve as intermediate supports for a rail 24 which extends across the cabinet and carries the back doors I1 so that they may freely slide between flanges 25 and 2S the upper end lof these doors is sustained by depending anges 21 and 28 of a co-extensive rail 29, the top of which is positioned above the lintel of the front doors I5. Similarly, the front doors I5 are supported-between upstanding flanges 30 and 3| and depending flanges 32 and 33 forming part of the front wall 34 of the cabinet II).

Spaced along the rail 24 are pairs of casters 35 which are carried by shafts 36 and are rotatable thereon by means of roller bearings 31 (see Figs. 4 and 5). These casters are disposed in mortise-shaped recesses 38 and may have a crowned surface designed to cooperate with a corresponding concave surface on the lower sash portion 39 or doors I1. In the embodiment illustrated, six pairs of casters are provided for each pair of back doors I1; similarly, six pairs of casters 4l] are disposed between flanges 30 and 3I for each pair of front doors I5. Thus, the doors may be readily displaced, and any desired section of the showcase may be opened from either inside or outside the cabinet.

Since the compartment I3 is exposed to ambient temperatures on one side only, and in open communication with compartment II, above and below the partition formed lby the doors I1 and their frames, its loss of refrigeration will be small compared to the heat transfer taking place between conventional display cases and the atmosphere. Thus, if an existing walk-in cabinet is to be converted into a combined storage and display cabinet according to the invention, the required fractitiinal increase in the output of the common cooling plant will be small relative to the cost of operation of a separate refrigeration unit for the showcase alone.

It will thus be seen that workmen, as for instance butchers, may be at work preparing cuts of meat in the refrigerator storage and workroom I I without being visible to customers viewing merchandise in the display case I3 while the display case is maintained at substantially the same low temperature as the compartment II of which it is actually a part.

While I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that modifications and adaptations may `be made without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention as dened in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure :by Letters Patent, is:

1. A refrigerated cabinet of the walk-in type having a door for a person to enter, a compartment disposed along one side of said cabinet in substantially breast height of said person, one or 4 more manually slidable inner doors separating said compartment from the rest of the cabinet, one or more manually slidable transparent doors separating said compartment from the outer atmosphere, said transparent doors being thermally insulated, a plurality of shelves Within said compartment, and a plurality of shelves underneath said compartment, said latter shelves being accessible from the outside through one or more hinged doors.v

2. A cabinet as set forth in claim l, wherein said inner doors are non-transparent and thermally conductive and wherein said hinged doors are non-transparent and thermally insulated.

CHARLES S. RAFFA.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 175,658 Brown Apr. 4, 1876 225,869 Richardson f Mar. 23, 1880 496,867 Daemicke i kl\ /Iay 9, 1893 1,484,361 Fredberg Mar. '13, 1923 2,450,088 Henderson Sept. 28, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date v 412,060 Great Britain June 21, 1934 759,151 France Jan. 30, 1934 

